001All right. Um, we will start with at six o'clock. I'll call the meeting to order. Um, I will start with an announcement. In accordance with board procedure BP5, this meeting will be livereamed and recorded and can be viewed on the DASD YouTube channel. So, Rebecca, was this meeting properly notice? >> Yes. >> And can we have a roll call? >> Sure. Janberg >> here. >> Ryan Coker >> here. >> Sue Esser >> here. Jeff Han >> here. >> Linda Lhart here. Dusty Lewis >> present. >> Gail Love here. >> Stephanie Sar here. >> Megan Taylor >> here. Thank you. That brings us to the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice
002for all. >> Mission, vision, and equity statement. The mission of the DeForestary School District is to provide an excellent education and engage, challenge, and inspire all students to pursue their full potential. Vision statement. The DeForest Area School District is committed to a culture that honors knowledge, respects individuals, demands excellence, fosters lifelong learning, and supports relationships that strengthen individuals, families, and community. Our equity statement. We believe every student can learn and deserves equitable access to highquality, rigorous, and engaging learning opportunities. So, we will ask questions, foster relationships, manage resources, and create systems to increase and sustain access, equity, and safety for all learners. Thank you. That brings us to approving the agenda. Would somebody care to make that motion? >> I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. >> You have a motion. Do we have
003a second? Second. A second. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes. That brings us to board business presentation and possible approval of board policy R2 academic performance. Welcoming up some speakers. >> Yeah. So we are welcoming up three directors. Our director of instruction Chris Smith director and Diana for uh student services. Great. We're gonna turn it over to you guys and I will bring up the talking points. >> Hi. >> Give a little overview. I just clean up the slide deck. So there we go. >> So we want to go through first the strengths that we saw report. So one of the strengths we saw is when we look at the grades three, six, and eight for literacy. We were above the state in every single one and actually
004some of them over double digits over that was strength. >> Yeah, same with ACT rating. Um we scored above the state by point8. um very proud of. >> All right. So, areas for growth that we noted, one of them is still looking at the forward data for third, sixth, and eighth grade. When you look at the subgroups when we disagregated it, disagregated it in indicator 2 are multilingual learners in grades three, six, and eight were below the state level. Additionally, students at at eighth grade eighth grade um who are not economically disadvantaged who have a disability um and who are white did score below the state as well. >> And then one of our areas is ACT writing. We fell below the state by 0.1 and I'll highlight in a in a couple slides we
005have some action steps um that we're going to work on with that. And then specifically looking at our subgroups too. Um there are quite a few that fell below the state um on writing as well. So again, we'll talk about that in just a little bit. >> All right. So we did kind of a combination. I know you appreciate when we were able to go back to last year's board report, take some of the action items and talk to you about followup. And as we were doing that work, we realized that a lot of them it's it is a progression of the work. So sometimes our action steps this year are because they're a progression or add-on from that last year. So we're kind of combining those two areas. So last year in our action
006steps we had mentioned that 4K was piloting amplify. We knew that last year we adopted amplify K8 and literacy. So last year we just had some of the 4K teachers piloting. This year they all implementing amplify. They received training in August and they meet monthly anyway as a PLC but incorporated into that time is collaboration and discussion on science of reading on best practices and just implementation and how it's going. Um, another action item, we had talked last year about supporting our multilingual teachers. And so, as a followup, this summer they did receive training from Amplify with the language studio portion of Amplify, which is their resource to support multilingual learners. And as we think about the new curriculum and and how we've shifted literacy instruction, it really is very much working with text texts
007and building vocabulary. And there's just a high level of rigor. And so as our staff have are making adjustments, thinking about how we support our multilingual learners, the training through language studio has helped them provide scaffolds for those complex texts, pre-teach the vocabulary. And then all of our multilingual learners have also engaged in learning with CISA 2 and the lift framework, which is also around integration and then combining those practices to support our learners in the classroom while maintaining the rigor. Um, another action step that kind of to Kate's point that we sort of were is was an ongoing one. So, it was on the action, you know, those action steps from last year but are kind of moving forward is around our co-eing and co-design models um with both our special education staff but
008then also our multilingual staff as well. And so, um, we really are targeting um, our case load levels. And so at this time last year, we were working on kind of building up our case load um kind of projections and being able so we hired quite a few staff members and so that our um case managers and our modal staff have the capacity to be able to be in those spaces to do some of that design work. And so we're really um making sure that that continues to be a priority as we move forward. We also provided a lot of professional development around codeesign. So this summer we had um 85 staff member members participate in yes we can training and really it's kind of like about that mindset of like we can take the
009the grade level curriculum and make it accessible for all. Um and so like the tenants of how to break down our standards and really think about how to modify or accommodate or design lessons so that everybody can have access no matter where you are in comparison to that grade level um standard. And then we're continuing to build that capacity as we think about um our current staff. And so each month our case managers are coming together and really that's a focus of every month of our meeting is really what is our code design looking like? How are you able to get in the right spaces and do the right work with our general education partnerships um so that we continue to make that um the you know amplify and all of our literacy practices accessible
010to everyone so we continue to make progress um in those areas. And then we want to kind of continue to build that as we think about the this summer and in going into next year. How can we kind of spread that? So 85 staff was a great starting place, but we know that this work is happening in every single classroom. So thinking about how can we continue to grow that that ability and then we wanted to share that again last year we know at kindergarten through 8th grade we implemented a new literacy curriculum. And so now we're into year two of it. And so and so as you think about the last few years, we spent a lot of time with staff on understanding what are the core elements or key elements that are needed
011to help our learners become readers, proficient readers. So this year when we think about standardsbased learning, that is also really that is helping build on that because now we're making sure we're taking the state expectations, the state standards, and really translating that into our work in our classroom. So how do we maintain those core elements and instructional practices helping our learners reach those standards, those learning outcomes that the state has identified? >> Yeah. And at the secondary level, um writing is something that we've uh has been an area of focus. So last year we had some teachers um pilot a new program called Quill um at the 78 levels. Um and that's a program really u that's supporting grammar um to be able to help students with their writing. Um and it went really successful.
012We tried that in the spring of last year. Um and then this summer we had teachers um do some more professional development around it. So now all of our teachers 612 our ELA teachers are using that program um to really help and and support students as a supplement. Um so that's something that is going really well. I was just in a classroom uh last week um of nth grade students and they were working on they took five or 10 minutes to go through and do lessons on it. Um I've seen the same at the middle school. So the incorporation of that has been really helpful in terms of intentional time um with students on their writing and their grammar. Um and then another um action step is we really spent a lot of time last
013year through the new schedule work of what interventions look like at the 712 levels. Um so one of the things that came out at the middle school was intervention is part of a student's day. um so it's a part of their actual schedule as opposed to in the past they would use their like flex time um to meet with teachers to get more intervention. So now the 78 level students in need of literacy intervention get it daily for 50 minutes teacher um as a full as a part of their class schedule. Um so that's something that's new. It's more targeted and it's daily. Um and then at the high school um one thing that we have realized over the last couple years is that we have a lot of supports in place for our nth
014grade students. Um mainly we have an English 9 algebra workshop class and we also have an academic reading class. So this year we implemented two new intervention classes at the high school specifically targeting more our 10th grade students. Um so we implemented a geometry English 10 workshop. So targeting students that are in need of support beyond 9th grade. Um and then we also added a new course for freshman sophomores called guided study. um which is a class um helping students with um different skills. So it can be it can be writing, can be LA, but it can also just be um organizing their schedule, can be just getting support on how to take notes, how to study, do more assessments, get help, targeted help from a teacher. Um so those are some intentional supports we
015put in place to make sure that students when they transition from 9th to 10th still have a successful experience. And um we're working on trying to figure out now our next steps are how would we then get that into 11th grade um to continue those supports for students that are in need. And then the final slide is just really our action plan moving forward. And as you heard like these are multi-year action plans. And so many of those same action steps that we followed up on are continuing into this year and beyond. Um, but specifically we're doing a lot of work in using the teaching and learning framework and those super six strategies which are like those high leverage evidence-based strategies that we are really focusing first with our leadership team. And so Kate, Chris,
016and I have been um go using our time, part of our time during our monthly leadership meetings um to really kind of like name those strategies, really identify what do they look like, who's currently doing those strategies really well in their spaces or which departments, and then being able to think about how can we continue to grow all staff being able to have really strong knowledge about those evidence-based strategies. Um and really kind of focusing on that tier one structure. So knowing that that the MLSS system that we have and meeting the needs of everybody really starts at tier one. So how do we make sure that that's the place that they're getting everything that they need and then kind of use continuing to use all the sports that we just discussed. You know for
017learners that maybe that's not enough but really taking the time to continue to dig into those strategies. >> Um I wanted to add a couple things. Um I have the um wonderful job of um observing principles and so um last week I was observing u Mr. um facilitate a PLC meeting which is our professional learning community meeting with a whole grade level and they were going through their students data and they share students for a period of the day for literacy and I was really impressed with some of the things that they that they were really focused in on um really specific core interventions and also enrichments. And then it just reminded me of how hard it is to teach because they also talked about Stephen the trying to teach literacy to students that weren't
018like looking at the words. So just reminding them like you can't read if you're not looking at the words. That brought it right back to the reality of like we talk about data at this level and it's really important but it helps me to be in those spaces to remember like they're seven and eight and sometimes those teachers are working on please look at the words. That's the starting point. Um, I just thought I'd bring that reality back. >> Um, and so, um, anything else from you guys right now? Otherwise, um, I I I do think this report is in a, um, we've marked it as reasonable pro progress with exceptions. There's things we're very proud of in here and also things that we know we need to dig into and continue to work on.
019>> Somebody cares to make a motion on the report. >> I'll make a motion to approve the report as presented. >> Accept report. Sorry. We have a motion. Do we have a second? >> I'll second. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Questions. >> I've got just a couple on. >> Okay. >> I've just got a couple on some of the data points. um when we look at when we're comparing it year-over-year. So like on page four and we say third grade in 2024 to third grade in 2025 that's not the same third graders right and that's the data in the appendex where we look at so like if we go down to like page 13 and you look at the forward those are class of 2023 you can see
020actually 2033 we can see the progression right yeah no it is awesome and that I was just like I wanted I was like yes I finally got that so I just wanted to make sure that I was understanding that correctly and and pulling that out. Um, and then the other thing I wanted to say just with on page four, we talk about um those three groups um that were we saw the drop. They're not above state average. We might want to think about um wording that better so it doesn't look like they have to meet all three of those things. It's truly that the anybody in this group, anybody in this group, and anybody in this group were below state average. It's not that you have to meet these three requirements. You see what I'm
021saying? Like how that's written. >> I just it wasn't clear that those >> as you scroll through, you see it in the data, but I just might want to word that just a little bit better. So, >> um we're catching that. Otherwise, you know, those were just a couple of the things that I had. And you know, great job as always. >> Jeff, >> my question is is you know, we talk about this. How do we keep kids away from AI? I mean, today If I was I wish I could go back in school and be like >> write this horrible paper and then go co-pilot please help me with my grammar and my I mean but in a serious question though I mean we also want kids to learn how to use those tools.
022So are we I mean obviously we want them to have the fundamentals of of of building the sentence correctly but then how do we educate them on how to use those tools to help enhance their writing? I would say there's two separate things I mean that you're identifying. I mean we do we are the way we have shifted the instruction and writing they're they're starting to understand conceptually what is a sentence what is a complete thought how and we want them to understand that because that's writing and understanding and reading it but then the other portion of it is once you're able to do that how are you using technology well respectfully or responsibly >> and that's at digital citizenship and that is work that we are continuing to work on as a district and
023I know we have we have a new technology integration team that's working on that and and we do I have been doing work quite a quite a bit for instruction on that that's happening eventually collectively but initially separately because I'm in first and second grade I need to learn what good writing is before I can understand how that connects to digital citizenship. >> Can we tell when they've used AI to write something >> somewhat? Yeah, there are some tools out there that you can put through generators and see um and then also just knowing the students and their their writing like that can always help too. Um it's not foolproof. Um AI >> history helps too. So if you see that all the text comes in at once that's a a big indicator of like
024you copied and pasted like I had a group just here tonight on us teachers working with AI, right? Yeah, and we were just talking about that specifically at the high school level. I I do think it is our job to teach students how to use these tools because these are going to be a part of their future. >> Um, and so we're really grappling grappling with how we do that, how we share that information with them, how we teach them how to use it appropriately. It's a resource. It's not something that's supposed to do their work for them. However, there are some really great tools in there like that can help their critical thinking and problem solving skills. um or here's an idea. I I want a thought partner to come in and try to
025help me with this. Um so there are different ways that our teachers are working on these tools with students. I'd say it's still in the really early stages in terms of what that looks like. Um but also like to to your question, Gussy, like I think a lot of our teachers are also looking at how they're assessing students, too. Instead of saying, "Hey, maybe just write a five-page paper on this." Um they might be more explicit in terms of what they're looking for. um so that it's harder for students to maybe AI generate that response. It allows them to put more of their thought into it. Um so I do think it goes both ways in terms of what our teachers are thinking about how they're sharing this. And I do think it is our
026role to help students understand these tools. Um, but also getting student input on how they're using them so that we can better assist them because I know I we're just working with WMadison when they go there, they have access to co-pilot um and they have access to different tools and I know in the workforce my wife is using it every single day. Um, so it we do have to equip them to be able to navigate um maybe less about content knowledge but more about critical thinking, problem solving and then ethics. Like there's a lot of components to it. >> We are seeing a lot of teachers do with writing actual where students are are writing basically not not right. >> Oh right at times that is what they also need to do. It's a combination
027of things >> and I'd say because of AI, like going back to writing, we talked about earlier, one thing I was just talking with the teacher and she was saying she she believes that students are doing more writing than they've ever done because it's really easy to for a student to go on and get an answer as opposed to like actually using their thoughts to create a response um and think about like actually how to structure writing in terms of claim, evidence, reasoning. So, our students are doing a lot of writing and in different ways than just um questions they can look up or put down for a piece of paper, too. >> That is something the board is interested in. I know we have another um board report where we have a digital citizenship
028component to it, but if you're interested in more information, we can also bring that as more board education um to keep it in the forefront. That's something we want to continue to explore with our teachers andor students and staff. I would love to hear more. I mean, it's it's it's going to be in our regular jobs if it's not already and so we need to educate, right? >> Well, I know at the district office level, we use Gemini quite a bit to help with it helps save time. So, >> do we do we own a subscription here in the school? Do we own a Are we paying for co-pilot? Are we paying for any of it? >> Jim and Jim. Oh, that's your group. >> I have a question on assessments. I know we took
029away like the I Ready assessment. Are we adding any more from a district perspective? Like using something like I think about like preac isn't really like not really mandate, right? But it something that we could use to assess our students. I know we say classroom assessments, but in like last year I noticed we had I Ready. would we use any other tools um as a district? >> So we do use I ready and as web in the district and I know the idea was when we had taken part of the when we had re revised the indicators we knew we were going to have to revise regardless because K3 has to use as web now for literacy. So in that conversation we had the discussion about how these are the stateated tests and then the
030building plans are coming forth with the principles where they use they use the I ready and the asub to help monitor student progress throughout the year to give more actionable feedback. That's how they determine needs for intervention groups and they are planning on coming and sharing that. I just wonder if if when we do that, I mean, I know we're using them. It might be helpful if we list what district assessments we are using because I feel like you guys know what they are, right? And so we have I Ready and we have Amplify and we have, >> you know, all these other things that I feel like >> we're not I don't want people to think and I don't I know we're not, but we're not just testing for forward and ACT. we have
031all these other tools that we're using data from to measure our students success. And so when you took that away, I was kind of like, I know it says classroom assessment. >> That was my decision and you we debated it. >> No, it's just me, but I would like feedback. >> I that is good feedback. Um if we want the profile in the report to be all of the assessments, we thought it should just be the ones that were list that we were, you know, >> presenting. But um if you want it to be a part of the the whole profile of what we do for a student, we can put it back in there too. There's >> quite a few assessments that we give. I mean access and for ELLL students >> and I
032don't know if it has to be I mean I just know that it's >> it's just I already is not is no longer a measured indicator in R2. That's why it was taken out. >> Gotcha. But you will be getting that information just like our principles use it for progress monitoring. We want to use it with the board about progress monitoring mid year. I had I was interested to hear more about this quill program um because I know it's new at the higher levels. What does that entail like as far as monitoring the progress for interventions? >> Yeah, so students do like at the beginning of the year they'll do a pre-assessment. So it'll sort of level them in terms of where they're at in terms of like right now they're focusing a lot on
033grammar, punctuation, capitalization, things like that. So it'll level them and then um teachers can do daily or weekly like like essentially lessons with them and the students will pick up where they're at. >> Um and then the program will automatically level students as they continue to progress through. >> This is all students or just identified ones that students. >> Yep. All students in at the high school or from grade sixth grade all right >> all students >> and I would say more primarily 610 or yeah 610 because that starting in 11th grade they have more choice in what classes they take >> it was just something that I appreciated when you looked at like some of the action plan steps a lot were focused on you know we have this new amplify curriculum for the
034younger ages and we're doing stuff for 4K which is great right but then I think about the progression and and we see some of those older age groups like 8th grade and maybe even like the ACT that are struggling and how are we providing you know additional resources for that group or cohort as well >> and I would say our teachers are the main driver of that like we we know this has been a gap in our instruction and so they spent a lot of time our middle school teachers then our high school went and visited our middle school teachers last year to learn more about it to figure out how this supplements and then embedding it within their curriculum so I would say it's very teacherdriven in terms of this being a really good
035tool to help with those things that we are definitely seeing gaps in >> and we're hoping eventually it'll fade away because gaps are being filled now structurally at lower levels but it's going to take some time which is why this quil is a really nice resource. >> I just wondered um in terms of the quilts said it's focused on grammar and writing. So is it focused on grammar lessons or grammar integrated into writing assignments? say they're more separate like there's grammar lessons but then there's specific writing prompts that they can do within it too using some of the tools >> to actually use >> okay so both and then the other question was um how is the partnership with the greater Madison um writing project how how you know how intense is that how is
036how does that work >> yeah so there's a couple different uses we have some teachers that do somemies with them um to do some learning workshops specifically around writing instruction and AI is actually a big piece of that component too. Um they're working with us, they were just with us actually right before this um doing some work around um how we can tailor our writing instruction with the use of AI um and kind of working through that. Um but they're also going to be partnering with our high school core teachers this year to really help understand what this looks like in their core content areas. Um and I think the bigger work is then making sure that all teachers are able to assess that student student write writing um sort of in alignment so that
037the things that they're seeing in an English class or social studies or whatever class the feedback is very similar in terms of what they're getting. So it goes beyond just the the English department. So we're more systematically preparing kids when they graduate to be able to be writers in >> college or whatever they decide to do. >> Yeah. And I talked about with AI earlier, but I would say the grading for learning work like specifically at the high school and work the middle school is doing too is going to support writing work even more because it's more focused on skill-based. Um and a lot of those are students doing deeper thinking um which is going to lend itself to more writing instruction as well. I had a question about um Ames. I know that there
038was a implementation curve and that we were ahead of ahead of the curve. Um now that we're fully into it, are we seeing um any benefits or is it helping with the progress of students or is this just another assessment tool? I would say elementary has found it to be a better support in getting more accurate data about students and literacy than I already was. Um I will say that there's still some gaps in it where it might be a time so when you do letter sounds and they give you one minute I might not have given all the sounds so I don't truly know how many sounds you truly know when I can go through them all. However, part of act 20 is you do students at flag then you do additional assessments and
039learn more. And I think about what Dr. Tat was talking about at Eagle Point. I was at Windsor for the same conversations last week and we are able they are able to identify the students that are 25. They're able to provide those supports and then we have another tool fast that monitors progress. So we are weekly monitoring their progress and so then when staff are sitting down they have the aims that go to know that they are at risk but then they have so many other data points to really say well what is the gap how what intervention do I need? Are they making progress in monitoring that to really follow up on students so it's been a lot of work I will say our elementary are feeling it but at the same time they're
040feeling very informed about students. Um, so adding to that, the PLC that I got to see was second grade and I would say that was probably the most prescriptive conversation I've heard about a large group of readers with a large team that I've seen in my career honestly. So I think the work that that Ames Web and Science of Reading we're going to see the dividends pay off or we will start to see that even more because those teachers were able to really talk about you know every the students that were in this range and exactly what skills they were missing including looking at the words. But um that but mostly it was you know it was really prescriptive down to like exact letter chunks. um uh the phone names that they need to focus
041in on a fluency rate that kind of thing. So very prescriptive is what I would say is yes that I was impressed with. >> And I would say like even they were able to say well they were able to demonstrate that skill orally but then when they have to end code it when they have to read it or they have to write it I'm not seeing it there or they can orally hear it but when they visually see it they can't. And so they were able to really parse it out even to that minute detail to know this is the one they really truly need to help them because I'm seeing that here I've never heard conversations. The other thing that I think will happen too with time and I know it's happening now but
042even more so is um when we we are teaching phonics um and then sometimes what will happen is when a student gets to like first or second grade and we're like you know what they're reading really quite well like they're able to pick up a you know a beginning chapter book let's stop teaching phonics because they've got it now we've learned that actually that can backfire then when they get to fifth sixth grade and they're now tackling long multi-llable words. They didn't have the skills to actually get through you know uh decode those multi-yllable words. They were stu readers were using um just context which is also an important skill is to have that too. So I think that that as web has really provided that and or the work of science of reading has
043really provided that. >> Well I would say amplify is the resource that helps us that has those strategies embedded. So now it has explicit phonics instruction, kindergarten, first and second that build on each other. And then at third grade, it shifts to what we call morphology. When you start to think of those chunks of word that have meaning with prefixes and suffixes and how it changes words. So third, fourth, and fifth gets progressively harder on that complexity. So by the time they're done with fifth grade, they should be able to understand Greek words, roots, Latin roots, and be able to then decipher and and read more complex words. and it's explicitly integrated into the curriculum. So we have the resource to do that. And then we also have teachers trained on if students are need
044a few more repetitions than what was offered within amplify then we have interventions that also help support that so they can get it. >> I think what excites me most is that we have this data and they're using it. They're using it to help kids on all levels, right? And like when you talk about that the conversations that are happening um that's I think that's what excites me. Yes. Like you can say we have all these tools right and I'm not even sure I know how to do great prefect at fifth grade I probably don't know how to do you know like that's great like that we have that but then we're I mean the kids that don't or even the ones that are excelling that need more like we we're able to identify that
045and use that data and that's that's a pretty cool thing. Any other questions, comments? >> Good. I >> was going to say so I appreciate the cohort data. I guess um is presenting the cohort data changed anything in your world in terms of how you're thinking about things or driven behaviors at all or is that something you're already kind of looking at just not reporting? >> I'd say it's something we're looking at. One thing I can say from the upper levels that we've spent more time on um looking at this data is how we support through interventions. So like I said, we see a dip from 9th to 10th grade in here. That's something that we've noticed over time. Um so it's something that we've spent more time as an intervention team at the high
046school like really helping problem solve how we better support learners. Um so I would say that's one tangible example that seeing this it's like it really affirms that the work we're doing is we're putting the effort in the right place. um because it is a group that traditionally like there is a gap between nth and 10th grade. So that's one example that I've used it for. >> I also think because we've added as a district an intermediate school, we have more transitions than some districts that don't have that. So I think it's really important that at the district level, we are the drivers of that that cohort. like we want our principles and teacher leaders to really pay attention to that trans those transition years. Um because if we don't, it's not like we have,
047you know, if they get to the middle school, they only have two years here. So, we can't afford to lose time. >> Yeah. >> Um >> and getting to know them again. >> I will say too, the forward data is a nice dipstick to see how we're doing in relation to what we use on a more regular basis. But I will say too, not necessarily with the cohort data, but thinking about all the work with that 28 elementary, that's been really a very heavy lift for them. And this year, the work is really thinking about how does that transition out to Harvest. And so I've been working a lot with harvest to see how what is the what are the best data points to make sure that we're really identifying students and what their needs
048are and then using forward as another dipstick to see how does it align with what the other assessments were using. Yeah, any other questions? >> My observation maybe that the the subgroups tend we saw some decline in them and I just wondered if it was an expression of a small group that you have small groups. So any change in that you have four people and and then they they shift because you've now they've moved on, right? you got the next group comes in and it's another small group and whether that has an impact, they're not achieving as well as the group that just left. So, you're seeing a dip in scores. Is that is this small group phenomenon or is it is it something more systemic? >> An example, I saw that too like the
049English learners, they went from 33 last year to five, but I'm assuming that our group was small, but I didn't make that assumption. >> Yeah. Right. >> That's why I like seeing the cohorts. I mean like that's why I can appreciate that data because you would be able >> track that progress of that group whether it's small or large >> and I will say that's definitely a factor means different students >> when you think about our multilingual wellness there's various um factors that play a part um when are they where is their English language proficiency what access for are they at they do get a first year exemption so you know knowing that the students change every year. I could be there ahead in exemption year then it's their first year taking it and it
050just changes. >> Yeah. But it's because it's a small group. >> Yeah. The swings look sometimes very young. >> Yes. >> Um one of the things on the capacity building that's your case load for special ed and I mean where do you see your numbers at? Are you able to m are you able to maintain that and find special ed teachers and keep it where you >> Yeah, I would not. So I mean I would say that I like I don't think I don't want to say like oh yes you know it's going to be easy because I think like it's you know unfortunately I think it's going to get more and more challenging um just based on like what we're hearing from universities about you know folks that are going into um special education
051like preparation programs and things like that. And so I'm really like I'm thrilled that the hires that we have this year so that we were able to keep those case loads at the you know what we're wanting to think and knowing that as our district continues to grow, we're just continue to need to hire more case managers so we can keep those ratios in that place. We don't want to grow and have those case loads grow too knowing that that will slow our work down. And so it's just really like utilizing um you know like hopefully having like that will be a selling point for just for teachers to want to come here is that our case loads are going to be a manageable size like that will be something that we will say is
052like we're doing this good work and we're committed to it and so like that I appreciate that that we are committed to that because that will help us get strong candidates. Yeah, it definitely and it it retains our current candidate, current teachers. And then the other thing is we have um we're always looking for educational assistants that um may be interested in pursuing their um license. We have a couple right now that are working on theirs. Um we have a partnership with Edgewood College where they get a reduced tuition rate um and basically trying to grow our own as well. Um, but having those lower case management sizes is huge to retaining staff. That is that is a question of probably every interview you've had is what is your average case load, right? >> Yep.
053>> And in the long run, it helps our students. >> Oh, absolutely. Like right our service delivery model is much stronger than they have capacity. Absolutely. >> I guess any Sorry. Go ahead. I was going to say as you look back on this year and you look at all the all the work that you guys have done which is quite a bit and you look at the capacity building um is there anything you think boy I wish we'd spent less time on this or more time on that like >> I mean I mean my my gut instinct is not necessarily because I feel like we're really moving in the right direction and I think it takes time and I think change takes time and so I think about we put a lot of time and
054energy into things but I feel like it's the right thing. So we think about data literacy and understanding how to be have our students become proficient readers like that's really good work but it takes it takes time. We haven't arrived. It's a work in progress and I think every little bit important. I think the standards based learning helps enhance that because it helps us make sure that we are clear on what we want students to learn and be able to do which is a huge that's a high impact practice which had visible learning work. So it's a lot of work. It's a heavy lift and I like that's where it's getting us and our students what they need. Yeah. Go ahead. >> Just one one other observation. I I love that the joint um or
055the partnerships and the the shared ownership for kids because that has not always been true and and I I really sense that in in as you describe how you're moving forward to meet the needs of all children. It's it's it's shared. It's not special ed versus versus general. Um and als and also the co-design and co-eing I mean it's it just makes sense and and so everybody's working together and getting this you know shared training you cross trainining as well. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. I would entertain motions on the report. >> I will make a motion to approve report as written. >> Okay. We have a motion. Do we have a second? We have a second. All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Thank you guys. >> Thank
056you. >> That brings us to public input, which I have none. Brings us to board consent agenda. Nobody care to make that motion. >> I will move agenda. >> Thank you. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. >> Any oppose? That brings us to superintendent consent agenda. >> We'll make a motion. >> Thank you. >> We have a motion on this to approve the superintendent's consent agenda. >> Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Have a second. All those in favor say I. >> I. Any oppose? That brings us to press verification. And I have none. Brings us to board debrief of meeting. >> It was short and sweet. We're talking about agenda planning whether um having an we on previous item on previous agendas after the policy
057we talked about reviewing the policy. >> Oh yeah. >> And um rather than looking at the actual policy I came up with a couple questions I thought it would be good to ask. And since we're so close to the policy, we should just go for it right here. Right. So, one question is, does the policy get us the data that we need? Well, think about what we just went through and and and you can answer that one and and then does that data provide evidence that the policy is being implemented? So I' I'd pose those two questions and then ask people to reflect or what >> and then yeah >> possibly give an answer. >> I'd say usually in the results policies, this one in particular is no different that we get more than enough
058data. Um and I can appreciate that um the data is relevant and it and it still shows that we have areas of growth, right? and that there were some changes made to the indicators to continue improving. Um, and we've talked about that with other ones as well. Um, how to keep the bar on a continuous improvement. So, my answer is yes and yes. >> When you think about policy and that's what posing to everybody, >> is the policy giving us the data? And I think we've gotten a lot of data that seems to point towards the direction we want to go. So I'd say the policy is probably working, doesn't need to be relooked at, and that the um for the most part the data is is showing that the policy is being implemented, that
059it's working because you can have a policy and it could be a lovely policy, but are you getting is it having the results that you'd want? And this is a results policy, so you'd really want to make sure that it was giving you results. So, >> I would agree that we've got the data. I also think it's just the tip of the iceberg. I think that our team actually looks at way more data than we have presented to us. And I don't sometimes I don't feel like they get the credit that they do deserve in all of the work that they that they do because we h I mean, I get it. you you got to be, you know, make it so that it's an executive report and that it's the way it needs to
060be. But, um, yeah, I I think that what we currently have is great and it's fun to now see the cohort data, too, and really compare those grades all the way through. Any other thoughts? >> I I think there's always, you know, there's so much data available, right? you can it's hard to pick the most co coherent and impactful things for a report like this, but I think that and I'd be curious what Rebecca thinks, but I you know I do feel like the policy has driven results. I feel like uh it does seem like in the last three to five years there's been a lot of uh collaboration in the schools to really align everything. So I I definitely can feel that when I hear these reports. Yeah, the board the bo the board
061um policies really drive our action plans and action steps. Um and yes, we are looking at a lot more data because we want to be more prescriptive and react to it faster. This is high level data. The other thing I thought was thinking about in terms of complexity is um talking about partnerships within schools but also as you were saying transitions across schools that we actually have more than than some districts and that's that's a challenge but but it's also we've we've seen evidence of the alignment again so people are connected prek 12 rather than school by school or or even the level by level. What was interesting on that was when you really look at what Jan was asking, we've aligned our policies to match that, right? So like I think that as things
062come forward, we have and they've changed indicators, maybe not necessarily the policy, but um you know to match our our specific buildings, right? so that we can monitor the data that comes before us and it's more I guess accurate thoughts >> when I look at the policy it is it is a a large ask you know each student will be literate and numerous um and so so forth and I think the way that we have the policy written the district has done a good job of creating interventions and supports for each student and it it'll be good when we do arrive. >> Gussy, any thoughts? >> We'll celebrate. >> Well, yes, I'm looking at the policy now and as Stephanie said, you know, it's really broad. It is a big ask and that was a
063lot of data, but you can see the improvement. you can see the method, >> right? Sort of behind the madness and and that they we're not just flying blind and all over the place, you know, we're sticking to it. It's a progression. It takes time and we're catching more and more students who need the help. I thought what they had mentioned about um how students are getting intervention every day instead of during their flex that's really important the consistency the time and so from when I look at this policy we drafted it we wrote it in such a way you know like you said it's just an overarching policy you know it's really big so I think we're getting what we want from it you know because we left so much space way to do
064that. >> Sue, any thoughts? >> Um, my thought in connection to this as we looking at the data, but any of the questions that we asked of the report or of the directors, did that does that spark a change in what we're looking for? If we asked a question tonight, is it for something we want that isn't there? I don't know if I'm saying so um and then again not necessarily to be answered right now but it's the idea of that um are we getting the data that we want? Are we seeing the information we want? So if we had a question about something, is it cuz it was missing or clarification, you know, was there? So >> any other thoughts? I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> I'll make a motion to adjurnn.
065>> Motion. Do we have a second? >> We have a second. All those in favor say I. I. >> Any opposed? Meeting is adjourned.